Quebracho trees in Argentina – on greeting and giving gifts to trees

Every so often, I sit at a table with environmental humanities scholars and discuss topics such as multispecies design. This is how I frequently come across new threads for stories about the wood wide web. At some point, someone pointed me towards an Argentinian practice of greeting a Quebracho tree and an American idea of giving gifts to trees. I found this article by Lopez Barbera F. (2024) which was a delightful reading and way of spending my afternoon.

Why would you greet a tree?

According to some local traditions, you would greet a tree to show respect and to acknowledge that the tree is a living being with its own feelings and boundaries, rather than just a “resource” to be used. By greeting a tree, you are practicing “more-than-human consent,” which means treating nature as a partner you need to listen to, rather than something you can just control or take from.

• To Ask for Permission: A greeting, such as “Good day, Mister Quebracho,” is a way of asking the tree for permission to be physically near it.
• To Acknowledge its Presence: It is a way of recognizing that the tree is an active “subject” that can communicate and affect the world around it.
• To Avoid Harm: If you do not greet the tree and seek its consent, the tree may deny you permission to be there by “shooting” you with a heavy, itchy rash.
• To Build a Relationship: Greeting a tree is part of a “ritual” that helps establish a reciprocal friendship between humans and nature

Why would you give a gift to a tree?

In certain regions of Argentina, if a Quebracho tree denies permission for a person to be near it (signified by “shooting” the person with an itchy rash), the person must return and offer the tree a cake of ashes as an apology to cure the rash. Along with the cake of ashes, the person ties a red thread to the Quebracho tree’s trunk as a sign of respect and a declaration of friendship. It is a vital practice for establishing a reciprocal and respectful relationship rather than an extractive one. This is not unique to Argentina and the Quebracho tree. In North America, Potawatomi basket makers seek permission from the Black Ash tree before harvesting it; if the tree grants permission, they offer tobacco as a token of gratitude. It sounds rather more agreeable than the tradition in Belgium and the Netherlands of gifting one’s pain to so-called nail trees or fever trees.

Do you know similar tree practices in your region or somewhere else? Let me know in the comments.

References

Lopez Barbera, F. (2024) When a tree says no: Towards a more-than-human consent notion for design, in Gray, C., Ciliotta Chehade, E., Hekkert, P ., Forlano, L., Ciuccarelli, P ., Lloyd, P . (eds.), DRS2024: Bost on, 23–28 June, Boston, USA. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.307